Public Prosecution arrests criminals for seizing SAR 16M in cyber fraud

Logo of Public Prosecution

The Saudi Public Prosecution announced today, Nov. 27, arresting a 13-member criminal group who seized SAR 16 million through fraudulent internet links. The defendants were referred to the competent court to impose the maximum penalties prescribed by law, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Prosecutions for Financial Fraud Crimes’ investigative leads suggest that the defendants committed financial fraud against several victims by sending them phishing links, through which the victims were duped into providing their government banking credentials to the suspects.

Via this fraudulent activity, the group managed to wrongfully endure powers of attorney without the victims’ knowledge. The suspects also seized financial sums from the victims’ bank accounts using money mules to transfer the funds from the victims’ accounts to other accounts or to cash out the fraudulently obtained money that was then deposited into an account of a commercial entity before being transferred abroad.

Accordingly, the criminal group defrauded the victims of nearly SAR 16 million, in addition to seizing more than SAR 600,000 in cash and other cash sums in various currencies. The fraudulently obtained money in the defendants’ accounts and the commercial entity’s accounts were redeemed by the Public Prosecution.